Another Ramin Bahrami movie, following his big hit on the Indie circuit, Man Push Cart (apart from Sarah Silverman's comment, "man push cart, who gives a shit?") Well it was a great indie film for those of us who do not need the plot and meaning of a movie spelled out for them. This was the last night of the Silk Screen film festival, featuring asian films. Chop Shop was shot in queens, NYC, in a part of Queens rarely seen, the auto junk yards and repair shops near the airports and the mets stadium. This film stars a 12 yr old boy and his 16 yr old sister, both living in a one room, one bed "apartment" in a car repair shop. he works for different auto repair shoplettes, and she works in a food truck and prostitutes herself at night. Grim. Ahmad Razvi, the actor and star of "Man Push Cart" was there, and some audience members wanted to know where this was shot and so forth - they couldn't believe it was in NYC. "Why aren't those children in school?" someone asked - get real - who cares if they are in school? He told me they shot the film with a Panasonic camera, but the camera was 50 - 100 feet from the actors, they used a high intensity lens to zoom in on actors. that way the actors were far from the cameras, and the real people in the film weren't self conscious about being filmed. the director told the shop shop street vendors that he was a student shooting a class documentary, and he shot alot of scenes (run through) with a video camera, and then slowly introduced more film crew, and then brought out the actual cameras. It looks like a documentary, but it is a film starring actors with supporting cast of real people. They interviewed 2000 boys before they selected their "star." Truly an amazing film, about a part of america few people have seen. This and "Man Push Cart" are truly amazing films. I plan to buy them as soon as they come out on DVD - great films for my class, Political Film.
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